Celebrating 10 Years

Expansion Team recently celebrated its 10th birthday.
Alex Moulton recounts our history and looks to our future.

In September 2001, we were in the midst of preparing to officially launch our new music company when one morning, like many of us with offices in lower Manhattan, we watched the twin towers fall from our open windows. After that bleak day and the introspective weeks that followed, I became even more passionate about our business and my team's commitment to a new level of integrity, quality and authenticity in music for TV. I've spoken with many other company owners who launched around the same time, and we all agree that, in retrospect, the silver lining of that unimaginably horrible day was the new level of focus that we gained in making our dreams reality.

The ever-expanding artist collective
In the beginning we were six artists: Vinroc of Triple Threat DJs, chart-topping DJ and remixer The Scumfrog, Itaal Shur (who had just written "Smooth" for Santana with Rob Thomas), ghettotech wunderkind Disco D, the legendary DJ/producer Scott Hardkiss and myself. Together we made some awesome tracks for Nike, HBO, IFC, Bravo and MTV, among others.

By 2003, we had doubled in size, adding Genji Siraisi of Groove Collective, Bill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control, John Kastner of All Systems Go! and The Doughboys, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. of Jellyfish and Moog Cookbook (who had just finished a few years on the road with Beck and Air), poet Ursula Rucker, film composer Michael Picton, and drum n'bass crew Mathematics. Over the next few years, even more of my musical heroes continued to join Expansion Team, including good friends José Luis Pardo of Los Amigos Invisibles, J Bowman of Michael Franti's Spearhead, pianist Dustin O'Halloran, Balún, and Jesse Peterson aka Datcyde. We've since grown into an extended family of bands, musicians, vocalists, DJs, and engineers that numbers close to 100 people.



One of the reasons that I created Expansion Team was to collaborate on a daily basis with musicians who inspire me, and just a few years in it was clear that this dream was coming true. We began to get calls from more artists, managers and labels to see if we would help them break into advertising, and we were able to help many of them find licensing deals and synch placements. It was both disconcerting and strangely satisfying to see that my predictions were coming true; as the recording industry began to crumble, artists were beginning to see scoring for television not only as a way to expand their portfolio, but as one of the best outlets for their music to reach a wide audience.

Project highlights
I'm often asked what my favorite projects have been, but my honest answer is that I love each new project more than the last. We've created over 30 show themes for Vh1, and I think the best was produced just two weeks ago for the 2011 Divas concert. Ask me again in a few months and I'll give you a different answer. I'm particularly fond of our art-inspired work for Target, our in-flight experience for jetBlue, and many of our network branding initiatives including Comedy Central, CNN International and PBS. I love the high speed chase of commercials, but I believe the future of this business depends on a more strategic, calculated use of sound and music. Maybe that's why the projects closer to my heart are ones which spanned years not days, and were inspired by smart thinking from my entire team with unique problem solving and beautiful execution.

When the going gets tough...
No history would be complete without an acknowledgement of all the challenges we've faced.

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The economic crisis, a record label that never broke even (not by a longshot), moving offices twice, saying goodbye to staff - none of these could ever compare to my toughest day as a business owner. A day which, ironically, would otherwise have been a career highlight. I was in Cannes having an incredible bottle of wine with new friends, discussing our evolving music tastes - arguably my favorite topic in the world - when my wife called to tell me that one of my best friends, close collaborators and original Expansion Team artist Disco D had taken his own life. There's really no way to ever fully recover from that type of news. It was the first time that I lost a close friend until exactly one year later when my mother passed away from cancer at the young age of 59. Since both were musicians who inspired me greatly, I keep their memories alive every day through music, so I'm thankful that my work keeps me surrounded by wonderful music all day long.

It's impossible to say how these earth-shattering life events affect your business, but they do. Perhaps it was all preparation for when our producer Jean was diagnosed with cancer last year at just 36. It was never a question as to whether we would support her through this experience. She beat the cancer in under a year and is a true inspiration to everyone in her life.

…the tough get going.
In just a few short weeks we'll be announcing a major transition in Expansion Team's trajectory. It's a change that I believe will have an impact on our industry that will be felt for years to come. We are older, we are smarter, we are leaner and meaner. We are more talented, more focused, and more strategic. And we have a vision for the future of content, branding, and entertainment.

Cherish your loved ones and have happy new year!
- Alex Moulton, Founder/Creative Director